As someone who writes about video games, this is the time of year when I start to worry about how many games are coming out, and how I’ll find the time to play them all before Game of the Year discussions kick up in December. So many games, so little time, and that’s especially true if you’re spending your time playing one of the longest games of the year — twice.
My wife doesn’t tend to get super into video games. We do play games together, sometimes, but usually point-and-clicks that cap out at around ten hours. Even then, they tend to take us a while. We just got done playing Return to Monkey Island, which we started last Fall. I’ve never asked her to play a big co-op RPG like Divinity: Original Sin 2 or Wasteland 3 together because it seemed like too big of a time commitment.
But she loves Critical Role. She listens to new episodes while she’s folding laundry or cooking or driving, and old episodes as she’s falling asleep. She started listening last year after watching an episode of The Legend of Vox Machina, and ended up sticking with it. Now she’s midway through season two.
Since she spends so much time listening to D&D sessions, I started telling her stories about my own adventures in Baldur’s Gate 3, explaining some of the different outcomes the game allowed. I told her about how I passed a skill check and managed to persuade Lump the Enlightened to work for me, narrowly avoiding a fight. I told her about how I blew the horn to summon Lump and his ogre pals to the Goblin Camp and how he and his crew immediately started feuding with the giant spiders I had recruited, putting me in a significantly worse spot than I was before. I told her about how I accidentally hit the release instead of the brake on a windmill, sending a bound gnome flying to his death. She was immediately interested, and we bought another copy of BG3 so we could play together on PS5.
We’ve been having a great time. Playing in split screen stresses me out from time to time, as I’m very aware of what the game normally looks and plays like. But not being able to make out the tiny print on a book from the comfort of my couch is a minor annoyance, and being able to play a game that I love with my wife is a major gain.
The only problem is I can feel it pulling me away from my own playthrough. After a harrowing battle, I left my Githyanki wizard Benn with Gale, Shadowheart, and Karlach outside Last Light Inn. I was stoked to see Moonrise Towers and, eventually, make it out of the Shadow-Cursed Lands and onto the bug-riddled streets of Baldur’s Gate itself. But now, I’m back hanging out in the Druid Grove and the Blighted Village. The progress I make here is progress I’m not making toward romancing my Shadowheart, giving blood to my Astarion, and providing valuable artifacts to my Gale. When I’ve spent 45 hours in my campaign already, it seems impossible that I’ll ever finish both.
I said a while ago that Baldur’s Gate 3 offered so much choice that it had me wishing I could play it again before I had even finished it. I guess I got my wish, and now I’m worried I’ll never finish it at all.